The term “steganography” generally infers data hiding. One form of data hiding includes digital watermarking. Digital watermarking may include a process for modifying media content to embed a machine-readable (or machine-detectable) signal or code into the media content. For the purposes of this application, the data may be modified such that the embedded code or signal is imperceptible or nearly imperceptible to a user, yet may be detected through an automated detection process. Most commonly, digital watermarking is applied to media content such as images, audio signals, and video signals.
Digital watermarking systems may include two primary components: an embedding component that embeds a watermark in media content, and a reading component that detects and reads an embedded watermark. The embedding component (or “embedder” or “encoder”) may embed a watermark by altering data samples representing the media content in the spatial, temporal or some other domain (e.g., Fourier, Discrete Cosine or Wavelet transform domains). The reading component (or “reader” or “decoder”) analyzes target content to detect whether a watermark is present. In applications where the watermark encodes information (e.g., a message or payload), the reader may extract this information from a detected watermark.
A watermark embedding process may convert a message, signal or payload into a watermark signal. The embedding process may then combines the watermark signal with media content and possibly another signals (e.g., an orientation pattern or synchronization signal) to create watermarked media content. The process of combining the watermark signal with the media content may be a linear or non-linear function. The watermark signal may be applied by modulating or altering signal samples in a spatial, temporal or some other transform domain.
A watermark encoder may analyze and selectively adjust media content to give it attributes that correspond to the desired message symbol or symbols to be encoded. There are many signal attributes that may encode a message symbol, such as a positive or negative polarity of signal samples or a set of samples, a given parity (odd or even), a given difference value or polarity of the difference between signal samples (e.g., a difference between selected spatial intensity values or transform coefficients), a given distance value between watermarks, a given phase or phase offset between different watermark components, a modulation of the phase of the host signal, a modulation of frequency coefficients of the host signal, a given frequency pattern, a given quantizer (e.g., in Quantization Index Modulation) etc.
Example work in steganography, data hiding, digital watermarking and signal detection is reflected, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,072,487; 6,947,571; 6,912,295; 6,891,959; 6,763,123; 6,718,046; 6,614,914; 6,590,996; 6,522,769; 6,408,082; 6,122,403 and 5,862,260, and in published specifications WO 9953428 and WO 0007356 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,449,377 and 6,345,104), and in published U.S. Patent Application No. US 2008-0298632 A1. Each of the patent documents mentioned in this paragraph is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Of course, a great many other approaches are familiar to those skilled in the art. The artisan is presumed to be familiar with a full range of literature concerning steganography, data hiding and digital watermarking.
A so-called “fingerprint” may include characteristic features used to identify a video or image. Such characteristic features can be derived, calculated or extracted from an image or video itself. Some such characteristic features may include, e.g., frequency domain features, peaks, power characterizations, amplitude values, statistical features, key frame analysis, color, motion changes during a video sequence, and/or others. Characteristic features (e.g., one or more fingerprints) of artwork, or a portion thereof, can be distilled into a set of numbers, or features, which can be stored in a database, and later matched against unknown works to identify the same. A fingerprint also can be used to link to or access remote data. Example image and video fingerprinting techniques are detailed, e.g., in patent publications U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,930,546, 7,289,643, and 7,020,304 (Digimarc); U.S. Pat. No. 7,486,827 (Seiko-Epson); 20070253594 (Vobile); 20080317278 (Thomson); and 20020044659 (NEC). Each of the above patent documents is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Portions of this disclosure describe a watermark robustness method and system based on a mobile cell phone camera's spatial frequency response and watermark embedding parameters such as density and strength. A watermark robustness metric is provided to help improve watermark embedding, e.g., when know the type of imaging system that will likely optically capture the watermarked object for detection. In one example, the robustness metric may be computed by measuring the area under the spatial frequency response for the range of frequencies covered by a watermark synchronization signal while excluding the interference due to aliasing. By measuring the distortion introduced by a particular camera, the impact on watermark detection can be understood and quantified without having to conduct large-scale experiments. This in turn can provide feedback on adjusting watermark embedding parameters and finding a trade-off between watermark visibility and robustness to distortion. In addition, new cell phone devices can be quickly qualified for their use in smart image applications.
One possible combination of the present disclosure includes a method comprising: measuring distortion introduced by a cell phone camera; using a programmed electronic processor, quantifying the distortion; and providing quantified distortion as feedback to adjust a digital watermark embedding process in view of the distortion introduced by the cell phone camera.
Another combination includes a method comprising: determining a first metric associated with a first cell phone camera; determining a second metric associated with a second cell phone camera using a programmed electronic processor, and based on the first metric and the second metric, determining watermark embedding parameters for a watermark embedder.
Still another combination includes a method comprising: measuring a spatial frequency response (SFR) of a cell phone camera; and using a programmed electronic processor, estimating image quality distortion due to the cell phone camera based on a result of the act of measuring.
Further combinations, aspects, features and advantages will become even more apparent with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawing.